Spaghetti Blogonese's Top Albums of 2022

 

1. BETH ORTON - WEATHER ALIVE - She'd taken a vertical drop and nobody realized. Being down  in the trenches happens to many people, but to utilize it in this way is credence to her cadence. In her third decade in the game now - the inspirational Chemical Brothers collaborator bust out her most gorgeous unchaperoned LP yet.

2. FONTAINES DC - SKINTY FIA - Ravaging. Stone-cold. Wanted to type "Steve Austin'' then. This post-punk LP takes Interpol, The Pogues and Jack Kerouac and puts them to blenderize on setting number 10.21 jiggawatts. The Irish accent helps grittify this further.

3. WILCO - CRUEL COUNTRY - Apparently the most popular band in my Spotify unwrapped, this was a double LP full of proper, inventive country music. There's a certain poetry to this collection that no other band can quite match. One lovely Sunday in summer I had a long, spontaneous walk with a friend drinking cans of beer, finding secret tarmac car-parks, blapsing this LP out. Good times.

4. MAKAYA McCRAVEN - IN THESE TIMES - When this dropped on the same day as Beth Orton's effort, autumn became embedded into a kind of healing capacity. As jazz continues to summon a quite startling renaissance, McCraven had been rustling up something special in the background. Like the title says, this variegated assemblage incarnates du jour.

5. EXEK - ADVERTISE HERE - This'll be your dark horse on the list. Gothy, dubby, propulsive and snarly music with saracstic and paranoid observations. Feeling like it comes from a preternatural time capsule from a David Mitchell or Emily St. John Mandel novel - but instead it washed up on my shores from Melbourne; let it wash up on yours too. 

6. ALABASTER DE PLUME - GOLD (GO FORWARD IN THE COURAGE OF YOUR LOVE) - Another dazzling British eccentric, of the jazz typoid. De Plume fuses spoken word and improv to disarm the listener. I first heard him criticising some amateurs sax playing techqniques with him exclaiming "You don't do it like that! You do it like this!'' in his hissy voice. As Pitchfork put it smartly - he's ''strangely uncomfortable and strangely comforting''

7. ADRIAN QUESADA - BOLEROS PSICODELICOS - One for the JimBob in Brooklyn here (yes - shout out) - this is a record collectors dream, a vintage, crisp sounding take on Bolero. Funnily enough brethren, I hadn't expected something like this to drop. It'll warm your cockles for sure and feel like it's always glorious outside.

8. KENDRICK LAMAR - MR. MORALE & THE BIG STEPPERS - 2022 was the year that Kendrick finally clicked with me - I was hoping it would happen at some point, but I could never force myself to feel it, James. Your Christmas card just arrived by the way. Hip-hop LP of the year.

9. BLACK COUNTRY NEW ROAD - ANTS FROM UP THERE - This really expanded on last years debut effort For The First Time. Amazingly, frontman Isaac Wood threw in the towel soon after this record saw the light of day, so who knows what direction this chameleonic band will take next; sliding and shapeshifting into a mental, elastic future.

10. BONOBO - FRAGMENTS - This was the one to jumpstart the year, a bit like Madlib the year prior, and Destroyer the year prior. Trip-hop might be the most unfashionable music known to man, but I'm not one for Vaporspray or Toilet House Duck. What a throwback this was and what an institution this man is. Dig.

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Honorable Mentions:

Destroyer, Kurt Vile, Daniel Avery, The Soft Pink Truth, Kokoroko, Daphni, Big Thief, Florist, Emily Jane White, Danger Mouse & Black Thought, Crack Cloud, Panda Bear & Sonic Boom

Albums of the Decade - 76. Zomby - Dedication

76. ZOMBY - DEDICATION

Back to back with Kode9 on this list for a straight-up double dose of irresistable dub and jungle. Sometimes I wish shit lke this would get a better playout in public, be it a bar or a mall, a carwash or a salon. Essentially a sketchbook of barbed melodies, arpeggiated and off-kilter - it just kicks up a skank and then mellows out, before kicking up a skank again and then mellowing out once more.

Zomby typifies the mess of London in a non-unabridged way. There is a childlike zig-zag to the thematics of this album. It's all over the shop stylewise, but the synths permeate through. When it's 16 songs with smatterings of bass @ just over 35 minutes - you might feel a bit pertubed on paper and I wouldn't blame ya. I was too, until I hit the big green play button; you won't regret it.

Albums of the Decade - 77. Kode 9 & The Spaceape - Black Sun

77. KODE 9 & THE SPACEAPE - BLACK SUN

This took the cake for my album of 2011, before the tragic passing of the poet and MC Spaceape in 2014. Think exceptional dub, truncated arpeggios, coupled with grizzly ragga rhymes. The syncopation of "Love Is The Drug" for example provides a cut that outwardly pumps its chest forth while burying the looped vocals under the belt of the mix. If Burial, also on the Hyperdub label is sheltery and mysterious, then this album provides the best of both worlds, a secluded bolt-hole but primed in the brilliance of day.

Kode 9, a.k.a.  Steve Goodman is the flagbearer for the Hyperdub record label, and I urge you to check out its roster of artists. No, I'm not pitching the shit to the man, merely endorsing a carriage-load of London. This album may have zoomed higher up the charts, had it been a bit more recent - there is other poetry to tuneage on this shitstorm of a blog. I need to promote the hashcakes / hashtags a bit better to get my own content ranked further up the brilliance of Google.

Albums of 2016 - 42. THE INVISIBLE - PATIENCE

42. THE INVISIBLE - PATIENCE

There used to be a footballer for Chelsea Football Club named Didier Drogba who had so much gusto when he put the ball in the back of the net. When I hear this neo-soul, I think it's the gusto in songs like "Best Of Me" that draws the comparison. I love running to this music. It's good when it's about to go dark. Alternatively just take it into the bedroom, if you know what I mean Jonny.

It really is soul music for indie fans. That sounds like a cheesy blurb especially after a glass of Chardonnay and a sugary sweet pear cider. If this writing gets too sickly then go and read another end of year list. If you're glued to it, then unfortunately I guess you're stuck with it

The aforementioned "Best Of Me " is without a shadow a doubt one of the songs of the year; it's phenomenal. The way the bass intertwines with the vocals, it's a pick-me-up that the rest of the album suitably follows suit with in suit suitably.

Albums of 2016 - 45. TELEMAN - BRILLIANT SANITY

45. TELEMAN - BRILLIANT SANITY

An aptly named album, Teleman are a great little indie band from London who have supported Suede and Franz Ferdinand when playing on tour. Brilliant Sanity, their second album is a straight-up, eleven track delight, packed with very well thought out thrust.

Brilliant Sanity quite often bundles in feelings of binary opposition, for example the title track discusses the metaphor of losing everything in a house fire. The character discusses feeling bulletproof, while the the eerie production and driving guitar conversely reassures the listener.

Standout track Superglue similarly builds up momentum, this time with a staccato verses and then a smoothed-out chorus. There's something bang-on fantastic about Cockney indie with  bristle, vigour and insight.

Records of 2014 - 39. The Bug - Angels & Devils

39.THE BUG - ANGELS & DEVILS

This album is divided into two halves and from the title, you wouldn't be a nincompoop to grasp that. The former half is spare-clutter-dub and the latter cranks it up. Ross would love it. It's been six years since London Zoo but this is even better I feel. When I listen to it, I can smell barbecues down dark alleys. We're all good.

It's so easy to write things like "love-a-dub-dub, I love the yellow duck that popped in Keelung." However, this is not an easy listen by no stretch. I love my new alleys and shit of the red light district in which I live and this is a great LP in which to soundtrack that underbelly in an anti-nightmarish kind of way.

As this list finally gathers momentum again, I can safely spark up and finally get my night started. Thanks The Bug.

Albums of 2012 - 12. The xx - Coexist

12. THE XX - COEXIST

Following up a debut classic album is a tall order for sure and these Londoners didn't disappoint with this stellar sophomore outing. The distance and space created by the separation anxiety that the characters are feeling is utilized so well by Jamie xx's production and the to-die-for vocals of Romy and Oliver.

The xx may be icy, but they pack a lot of soul into their music. The way the band evolved and honed their strengths, rather than throw the kitchen-sink at the creative process is admirable as fuck. This long player has the longevity of an age and that's to be toasted.